


The Choices One Makes

by AuraWhiteFox



Category: Marvel, X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Angsty Schmoop, Cute, Fluff, Kissage, Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-10
Updated: 2011-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-23 15:03:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/251639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuraWhiteFox/pseuds/AuraWhiteFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the Charles/Erik summer exchange. Recipient: almightyspaz</p><p>Prompt: AU from the end of the movie. Instead of Charles being shot, he is attacked by Shaw. How the writer wants it to go, is totally up to them.</p><p>Summary: “I’ll come back for you, so you better not die. You hear me?! I’ll get the children out but I’m coming back!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Choices One Makes

Charles screamed as the pain spiked to imaginable levels. He tried to hold on, truly tried to keep his concentration and hold on to Shaw but the pain was blinding him on all sides. The feel of the coin searing through his head, through the soft tissue, bone and muscle before finally entering the brain. Even though some part of him knew that it wasn’t real, at least physically, he couldn’t help but scream out in complete and total agony as Erik pushed the coin into Shaw’s head.

Finally he couldn’t hold it any longer and he let go, of the pain and of the person experiencing it, he lost hold of Sebastian Shaw, and his dear friend might just die because of it.

 _:No!:_ As soon as the pain stopped burning though him Charles tried to regained his hold on Shaw but it was already too late. The coin had only breached half-way through Shaw’s head before it stopped, stuck in the man’s brain tissues. Shaw was dying, there was no doubt about that but his sheer determination for his life held off death for a short time longer.

In pain and rage Shaw didn’t bother with trying to kill Erik who was still standing in front of him, shocked and confused when the coin stopped moving but not of his own will. Shaw lunged forward at the surprised man and wrenched the helmet off of Erik’s head and placed it on himself.

Erik was surprised at the sudden attack, so he didn’t bother trying to fight back, which was probably the only reason he was spared from Shaw’s wrath.

Once Shaw had his helmet on he ran madly from the submarine, blood and brain tissue dripping from the small line in his forehead, sticking to his face revoltingly.

His eyes were glazed with complete madness, the whites were pink, stained as blood vessels burst and a certain yellow shade began to discolor them, a feral wildness to them that spoke of the absence of all human thought and reason. All that mattered to his leaking brain was the drive to kill the one who had killed him.

Erik may have been the one who pushed the coin into Shaw’s brain but it had been Charles who had held his limbs immobile and made him experience all the agony without the possibility of screaming or moving away to save himself.

Charles couldn’t read Shaw’s mind anymore thanks to the helmet but that didn’t matter, he could feel the intent of what Shaw planned to do, to him.

Charles-Charles-Charles-Charles-CHARLES--!!

He felt a chill of primal fear slide down his spine. Charles wanted to run, far, far away but he couldn’t, his legs felt like they were locked in place and his limbs were trembling in fear. He knew that he needed to get the students as far away from Shaw as possible, but for the life of him, he couldn’t move out of fear.

Finally though, he managed to break out of his paralysis when he saw Raven walk into his line of sight.

Raven-his sister, who would be torn to shreds if she stayed here.

“Raven!” Charles screamed, running out of the crashed Blackbird towards her.

She was standing a few feet away from the debris beside Hank, both of them looked up questioningly when they saw Charles run out of the downed jet towards them hystericallye.

“Run! You’ve got to get the others and run right now! Shaw’s still alive! You’ve got to-!” Charles couldn’t finish as a sudden wave of invisible force pushed against him, causing him to fly back and land heavily on the sand. He bit back a cry of pain as he felt something shift inside of him that shouldn’t be able to move. He might just have a broken rib or two.

“chARles-ChArleS-Cccchhhhhhaaaaarrrlllleeeessssssss!!!” Shaw’s deranged screech came from the hole in the ruined submarine.

:Too late: Charles thought, frightened by the animalist twist on Shaw’s zombie like face. _:Erik? Can you hear me? I want you to get the others and run, I don’t care where, just make sure you are far away from here! Find someplace safe to hide and then head back to the mansion. I…I’ll distract Shaw.:_

Charles could feel the denial and dismissal in Erik’s mind, his firm resolve not to leave Charles behind to be torn apart by Shaw. Charles felt like screaming at the man, this was not the time to be noble or seek out revenge. This was about survival and if Erik had even a drop of it then he’d be getting out of here to fight another day.

 _:Just do it!!:_ Charles demanded, terrified as he unsteadily got to his feet, holding an arm around his middle to try to stop his ribs from shifting inside of him. He had to freeze Raven and Hank in place because he could feel their intentions to run over to him to help, but he knew that if anyone got close to him right now, Shaw would see them and kill them as well. Right now Charles was the only one Shaw wanted and as soon as Charles was dead he knew that Shaw would follow. As long as no one else got involved, then no one else had to die.

 _:I’ll come back for you, so you better not die. You hear me?! I’ll get the children out but I’m coming back!:_ Erik projected with grim determination, a feeling not unlike horrified resignation seeping through his mind as he thought of all the possibilities that could happen to Charles while he was away. But he knew, just as Charles knew that he knew, that if Charles lived he would never forgive him if one of the children got hurt because Erik hadn’t taken them away.

“Thank you my friend.” Charles whispered before he felt another blast of kinetic energy slam into him, this time the blast was much more powerful.

 _:E-everyone can you hear me? I w-want you to go with Erik and get out of here. Just follow Erik’s instructions and you’ll a-all be alright. I…I’m so sorry that I brought you h-here.:_ Charles thought weakly to the students and Moria, he couldn’t project much more then that, the pain inside his body kept distracting him.

After that he cut off his mind from the others, he didn’t have the time or the energy to fend off their protests that they would no doubt come up with. He had to stall Shaw as much as possible until the blasted man died.

It would be nice if I could win this fight as well. Charles thought sarcastically as he got to his knees hacking up blood and bile.

That last blast had cracked several more of his ribs but he didn’t think he had any internal bleeding yet, but he couldn’t be sure. The blood that he was throwing up was worrying.

“CHarLEs!” Shaw’s voice began to break and alter as his body began to shut down in death. Charles tried to get to his feet quickly. Maybe if he could make himself a moving target he could avoid the worse of the damage. But just as he stood up, Shaw appeared in front of him.

“WhEre aRE YoU gOinG ChARleS??” A ghoulish grin spread on Shaw’s face, the man was dead-his body just hadn’t caught up yet. Charles tried to strike off Shaw’s helmet with his arm but the moment his hand touched the metal a powerful blast of kinetic energy surged through him from the man’s head.

Charles screamed in agony and tried to wrench his arm away but Shaw was faster and held him firmly in place. His grip was inhumanly tight as he stood there smiling insanely as he sent wave after wave of destructive power into Charles body.

Charles could feel his internal organs rupturing as well as his muscles tearing apart. His bones broke and shattered into pieces and so much more and still Charles tried to get free from Shaw. Hitting uselessly with his broken arm and screaming his throat raw until more blood well up in his throat and threatened to choke him.

This is it. Charles thought, disbelieving. A part of his mind cut off from what was happening to his body, it kind of felt like he was floating somewhere, he could still feel the pain, but it had somehow become muted. _This is how I’m going to die…I can’t believe it. I don’t-it’s strange. It doesn’t feel like dying, no…it’s like painfully living. The children will be alright…Raven and Erik will take care of them, make sure that they live their lives to the fullest. I just wish I could have had more time with them all. More time to spend with Raven and Hank and Sean, Alex and…Erik…to tell Erik how much-gods I love him, I love him and now he’ll never know. Oh god-!_

Suddenly, everything seemed to stop. Not the pain, he could still feel his broken body and what Shaw had done to him, but Shaw had stopped, he wasn’t sending anymore waves of energy into him. Shaw’s grip loosened on him, and Charles distantly felt himself fall backwards. He didn’t even register that his body hadn’t hit the sandy ground, but was instead being held by someone.

“—harles! Charles! Oh god... wake up you stubborn bastard! You can’t die! You hear me? I won’t let you!!” A voice spoke above him, pulling him from the hazy darkness that had crept towards him.

 _Who?_

“Please Charles...” A heartbreaking sob echoed through the air, someone was crying over him, for him.

 _Erik?_ Erik didn’t reply to him, so Charles mustn’t be sending it right, so he weakly tried again.

 _:Erik?:_

 _:Charles? Oh god Charles! Hold on you hear me? We’re going to get you some help, so you better stay exactly where you are or I will kill you myself!:_ Erik sounded hysterical and Charles couldn’t imagine why, not that he could think much right now, he felt like he was floating, the pain was almost fading away…

 _:HOLD ON! You hear me Charles!? I’m not letting you go!:_

The pain suddenly crested and the pleasant haze blew away as Erik’s loud voice vibrated around his head. Charles tried to cry out but the pain was near overwhelming.

“He needs a hospital!”

The haze was coming back, but this time it didn’t diminish the pain. Charles could feel his mind fracture in place.

 _Was that Raven? Sweet Raven…as beautiful as the twilight sky. He should have told her the truth, that she was beautiful in her true form, more beautiful than any other. Why didn’t he tell her?_

“Quick we need to get him out of here, I can’t stop the bleeding!”

 _Ah, good boy Hank. He’ll make a fine scientist, maybe even a doctor…oh wait-wasn’t he blue now like Raven? Preettttyy kitty, fuzzy…even better._

 _Where’s everyone else? Wasn’t there more? Where are they? My students…my children. I’ve failed them all. I’m so sorry…_

“Don’t you dare Charles, you haven’t failed anyone yet and I won’t let you.” Erik’s voice growled into his ear as he lifted Charles’ broken body into his arms.

“Er-ick lov-ou.” Charles managed to get out around a mouthful of blood.

“Hold on Charles, you hear me?! I want to hear you say that when you get better.” Erik’s voice was getting desperate as something seemed to be happening around him.

“C-can’t sorr-y.” Charles said before the darkness overcame him.

“Charles? CHARLES!” Erik’s panicked voice followed him down into unconsciousness.

 

\--

 

Beep…Beep…Beep…Be-

Charles opened his eyes slowly as the continuous and annoying sound of machinery pulled him from his deep slumber.

White walls, crisp white sheets, an i.v. drip in his arm.

So he was in a hospital then. Charles couldn’t help but feel confused. Why would he be in a hospital? Charles couldn’t remember getting himself in any kind of accident lately.

The memories were teasing his mind, but for the life of him he couldn’t grasp them.

“Charles?”

Charles looked over in the direction of the open door to his room and standing right outside the room was Raven. She was in her normal disguise, that of a cute young blonde.

Suddenly the memories came back to him, about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Erik, Shaw, his loss of control, and…

“Ra-!” Charles tried to talk but ended up coughing. His throat was terribly dry and it felt like he’d swallowed a field of cotton.

“Let me get that for you!” Raven babbled before running into the room and grabbing a nearby pitcher of semi-warm water, she filled up the empty cup and brought it over to him, Charles tried to reach for it but his arms were weak. She lifted the cup to his lips and Charles sipped gratefully.

Once he was relatively sure that he could talk without coughing he tried again.

“Raven, where am I exactly?” He managed to whisper out. His throat still hurt and felt dry, but he could still speak, which was something he was grateful for.

Raven’s eyes were glazed with tears as she looked at her brother.

“We’re in Saint Mary’s hospital in South Florida.”

Charles couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt this out of place and confused. “Florida? How did we get all the way over there?”

Raven looked hesitant as she wasn’t sure what to tell him, but after a moment she continued. “Back at the beach…we did as you told us, we all gathered around Erik when he ran out of the sub, he took us to the edge of the jungle but he wouldn’t go further…he said that he wouldn’t leave you to Shaw. He ordered the rest of us to keep running but…we couldn’t. I-we were so frightened, about Shaw, about you, and not only that. Erik said he felt the humans launching missiles at us.”

“What?!” Charles tried to shout but ended having a coughing fit instead.

Raven just filled the cup again and pressed it to his lips after he stopped coughing. Charles drank gratefully.

After a few swallows, he tried again.

“What do you mean? What missiles?”

Raven sighed heavily, “All the warships from both sides fired at us. It seemed like that was their plan all along.”

“But we got Shaw…didn’t we? He’s not still alive is he?” Charles could feel himself begin to panic at the thought of Shaw still living.

“No, he’s dead.” Raven reassured. “Moria tried to hail them but they ignored her. They wanted to wipe all of us out at the same time.”

Charles couldn’t believe it…well he could, but he didn’t want to.

“Did everyone get away?” He couldn’t help but ask, dreading the answer if it was a negative.

“Yes, it all happened so fast. When Erik ordered us to stay in the trees we happen to see the rest of Shaw’s old crew hiding not too far from us. They were only a few feet away; staring at…what we assumed was Shaw and you. Erik saw them and his attitude suddenly changed. He marched right over to them and started to bark orders at them and the amazing thing was, they listened to him.

“He got Azazel to teleport next to Shaw and touch him to teleport the both of them about a mile over the ocean and high up in the sky. He was…slightly hurt from the backlash of touching Shaw, but it wasn’t anything life threatening, not like yours was. You…got the full force of Shaw’s kinetic power, although for some reason, he didn’t or couldn’t use the nuclear power he absorbed earlier. Erik thinks that he was using it to keep himself alive for a little longer and if he used it on you…well I’m not sure what would have happened. Shaw was out of his mind and I doubt he was thinking at all when he attacked you.

“We didn’t know what to do after that. As soon as Azazel took Shaw away you collapsed to the ground and luckily Erik caught you before you hit. You weren’t moving at all and there was so much blood…we weren’t sure if you were even alive because you’d stopped screaming and…oh Charles.” Raven burst into tears and Charles could only watch in guilt and disbelief at everything she was telling him.

Charles continued to listen in stunned incredulity as she told him that Erik had ordered Azazel once again to transport all of them to the nearest hospital, right before the missiles hit the area and obliterated everything.

Charles had no doubt that everyone in the CIA thought they were dead. Sadly it was probably for the best, as much as that pained Charles to think.

Apparently they’d only just got to the hospital in time. Charles had begun to flat line so he had to be rushed into surgery right away. It helped that Erik had persuade the doctors with promises of violence if they didn’t save him.

Luckily, the doctors had managed to stop the internal hemorrhaging and stitched up the worse of the cuts. Most of his ribs were broken and his left arm was shattered in at least three places. It was the arm that Shaw had held onto when he’d sent his power into Charles’s body. The rest of him was pretty damaged as well, but luckily no longer life threatening.

Charles sat there as Raven told him that now that he was awake he could reassure Erik that he was okay and stop him before he went on a rampage.

“What? Rampage? What are you talking about?” Charles asked, baffled after Raven had given him another sip of water, Charles hated being weak in front of her, but he could hardly lift his head to take a sip, let along his whole upper body and arms.

“Well...” Raven’s face unexpectedly shifted into a pleased smirk, her eyes still watery, but she didn’t seem like she was going to burst into tears any time soon, thank god. “It seems that Erik didn’t take to you being injured so well. He’s been camped out in the hallway for the four days, which is something that the nurses on the floor think is both cute and annoying since they have to walk over him at times. He’s hardly left your side and the only times he did was because we managed to bully him into showering and changing his clothes two days ago. Since then, he’s been outside guarding the room. The others and I believe that his paranoia is at an all time high. But seriously, he’s been really worried about you, we all have. Sean even swears that he saw him crying.”

“I wouldn’t believe everything that Sean says.” Charles said distractedly at the thought of Erik crying for him. Erik had been that worried about him?

“Well, this time believe it. And you don’t have to worry about the others; they’re back at the house. We all wanted to camp out here as well, but Erik and the doctors kicked us when we made a slight fuss. They also said that it wouldn’t do to overcrowd you when you woke up, they didn’t want us to distress you. Oh, Azazel and the others are staying with us for a few more days, just until they figure out a way to save their own telepath from the suits. We don’t really like it but…they did help us so we’re kind of turning a blind eye to it. Although I don’t mind if they hurt a few suits since they gave the order for our deaths.” Raven told him firmly, but with uncertainty of his reaction to her declaration.

“That’s fine Raven.” Charles assured her, while he was grateful for the other mutant’s help he couldn’t say that he approved of breaking Miss Emma out of CIA headquarters. But as long as it didn’t lead back to him and his students then he would turn his head away this once. As long as the CIA thought them dead, Charles had enough time to think of a solution to their predicament.

“Well, since you’ve woken up and seem alright for the most part I’m going to head home and spread the good news around. Besides, I think there’s someone who wants to talk to you privately.” Ignoring Charles confused expression Raven smirked deviously and walked away.

Charles watched as she left the room, he didn’t move and kept his eyes to the door. A minute later he was rewarded when Erik shuffled into the room.

“Erik?” Charles asked. Erik’s head was lowered so Charles couldn’t see his face. He didn’t want to pry into his friend’s mind either so he restrained himself. Not to mention that using his powers right now wouldn’t be productive to his recovery.

“…Charles…” Erik whispered, as if to himself, before he slowly walked forward until he reached Charles’s bedside. His expression was closed off and his eyes were staring at the bed so Charles couldn’t look into them to gauge what Erik was feeling or thinking the old fashion way.

Charles hesitated for a moment, almost afraid of Erik’s reaction, before he lifted his hand off the bed and lightly touched Erik’s arm. He saw and felt Erik’s body shudder under his touch.

“Erik?” Charles asked again.

A chocked sob escaped Erik’s lips before the man threw himself into Charles’s arms.

Charles automatically wrapped his arms around Erik to the best of his ability. Even as distressed as he was, Erik wasn’t putting his full weight onto him so Charles thankfully didn’t have to ask him to move. His injures were bad, that was true, but drugged up as he was Charles could barely feel them.

“Shhh my friend, it’s alright. Shhh.” Charles said smoothly into Erik’s hair as Erik held onto him and cried. Charles felt…well, he didn’t know what he felt exactly. He’d seen Erik cry before when Charles had unearthed that memory of his mother back at the mansion to give him the strength to move the satellite. But never like this, Erik wasn’t just crying a few tears, he was sobbing and letting out all the pain that he had festering up inside him.

Charles couldn’t help but feel completely warm inside by the sight. Morally, he knew that he shouldn’t be happy at seeing his friend distressed like this, but he couldn’t help it. He was just so glad to see that Erik was finally letting go, little by little, of the hate and anger inside of him.

“Charles…Charles…” Erik whispered repeatedly, reverently.

“Shhh. I’m fine Erik. Thanks to you I’m fine.” Charles whispered gently as he stroked Erik’s head and ran his fingers through his hair.

After a few more minutes of this, Erik finally stopped crying. He lifted his torso and looked up at Charles and without hesitation kissed him, at first lightly and then with more force, more passion.

Charles kissed him back of course, he wasn’t too surprised at the turn of events, but he still felt blissfully in awe at the timing, he knew that Erik had felt some kind of attraction to him and Charles shared that. He just hadn’t known if they would ever act on it.

Charles’ body would mend in time. It would take awhile, and he would require help doing the most basic of tasks for some time, but he didn’t bother to worry about that now. Erik and the children were all fine and Shaw was dead, not to mention that a world war had been averted.

Charles hummed contentedly into the kiss as he thought that things couldn’t get any better than this.

Then Erik pulled back and whispered three little words and Charles was happily proven wrong.

 

~The End~


End file.
